The Australian favorites held the lead after the third day of sailing at the first Taiwan 49er Grand Prix, which will wrap up in Penghu this afternoon. Taiwan's two teams, neither of which were sailing after failing to make the two-day cut, drank free Corona beer by the harbor.
The event is the first Olympic class sailing competition to be held in Taiwan. The boats involved are 4.9m long "49er" dinghies, an exciting class of small sailboats that have come on to the world scene after debuting at the last Olympic Games in Sydney. Many of the visiting sailors are Olympic athletes.
PHOTO: AFP
Yesterday, the third day of racing, the competition stepped up in stronger winds of 14-15 knots (about 30kph), on a shorter and more physical course and in more crucial races. Races on the first two days were mainly used to separate the 11 finalists from the original field of 17, with the entire qualifying rounds counting only as one race.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DESTINATION MARKETING INTERNATIONAL
Taiwan's two teams, both new to the sport and with only one week to practice in the tricky, high performance 49ers, failed to make the cut.
The majority of the points used to determine the champion will come from the six races yesterday and the six scheduled for today.
Yesterday morning's action was dominated by the American team of Tim Wadlow and Peter Spaulding, who logged two wins and a fourth place.
After taking the points lead they had only a few minutes to enjoy the advantage. While coming in for lunch they ran their craft into a shallow reef near the race course.
During a two-hour lunch break, Wadlow and Spaulding worked feverishly to repair their boat, inserting a new dagger board and using hair dryers and epoxy to repair the housing that held it.
In the three afternoon races, the Americans ceded the advantage to the experienced Australian team of Chris Nickolson and Gary Boyd, who moved into first place overall with first, second and fourth place finishes. Nickolson/Boyd also led in points after the preliminaries.
Of the top five teams, three were Australian. The American team of Wadlow/Spaulding held second, and the Japanese team of Kenji Nakamura and Masato Takak was in fourth.
As this is Taiwan's first appearance on the international sailing circuit, none of the foreign sailors participating in this weekend's 49er Grand Prix had previously sailed in Penghu. Many, however, marveled at the spot's near-perfect conditions.
"You have fantastic, consistent wind, you have flat water, and you have warm water," commented one British sailor.
"It's very good here," said Nakamura, an Olympic sailor. "I didn't know about this before. Actually, I almost didn't come because I didn't think it would be an important race. Then I looked at the list of entrants and knew I had to be here."
High-power entries, like points leader Nickolson, fellow Aussi Mark Turnbull and Nakamura, were attracted to the Penghu Grand Prix by Taiwan's Ministry of Tourism, which has absorbed the significant costs of holding the event.
The Penghu County Government is now lobbying for more funds to further develop the sport by building a sailing training center in the archipelago.
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